Dean Vilakazi

Left Forward - Bloemfontein Celtic
25 Dec 2026
Friday
Process

Marked for Dean Vilakazi

14 Edition

The Bloemfontein Celtic Sentinel

2 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Bradley Mabunda damages knee ligaments — 19 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 19 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Match

A 2-goal lead gone for Bloemfontein Celtic

It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Chippa United kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Bloemfontein Celtic will be asked about the last half hour all week.

Squad

Tempers go at Bloemfontein Celtic

Dean Phiri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Player ratings

Siyabonga Mothiba runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Player ratings

One of those days for Dean Phiri

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.27, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Squad

Khama Dala falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Thamsanqa Dala at his very best

Marked 8.13. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Bloemfontein Celtic.

Match

Bloemfontein Celtic and Chippa United take a point apiece

It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.

Player ratings

Dean Vilakazi will replay that one

1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.

In brief